The present invention refers to an apparatus for the automated preparation of solutions and a combined system for metering liquid products, solid products and solutions.
Colouring solutions for the so-called xe2x80x9ccolour laboratoriesxe2x80x9d of the textile industry, in which tests are carried out on the effects of the solutions over fabrics to be dyed, are known to be prepared according to a process which until now has required a massive and instrumental intervention of human operators.
In particular, the operators prepare the solutions by manually metering the liquid or solid products to be dissolved into water or other. This operation is carried out each time a solution becomes exhausted or expires for having left unused for too long. For example, in case of solutions obtained from powdered or granulated products, the operator takes a container in which to prepare a solution, places it on a plate of a precision scale and puts on it firstly the products to be dissolved and then the water or other solvent. Thereafter, places the container with the thus prepared solution onto the platform of an apparatus for the removal and metering of the solutions. Such an apparatus is described in EP 897.031.
This procedure may brings about errors of some importance: the manual metering of the products to be dissolved may be affected by inaccuracies also of significant level and, moreover, the operator can place the container at a location other than the one being preset upon the structure""s platform for removing and metering the solutions.
The same drawbacks may result also in other industrial sectors, in which provision is made for using solutions to be delivered and metered by automated systems.
The main object of the present invention is to overcome the said drawbacks.
This result has been achieved, according to the invention, by providing an apparatus having the features indicated in the characterizing part of claim 1. Further characteristics being set forth in the dependent claims.
The present invention makes it possible to automate the steps related to the preparation of the titrated solutions, that is, to the metering of the products to be dissolved and to the dissolution of same products into the required volume of solvent. Moreover, a single apparatus is able to operate automatically both the steps of preparation of the solutions and those relevant to the metering of the solutions thus prepared. Moreover, it is possible to control, also automatically, the metering of liquid and solid products and solutions as well to achieve mixtures formulated according to predetermined xe2x80x9crecipesxe2x80x9d. A further advantage offered by the present invention lies in the relative constructional and functional simplicity of the apparatus.